A busy scene in 1920’s Main Street, High Blantyre. Pictured looking towards Auchinraith, it is sad to say almost all of the buildings in this picture do not exist anymore.
Putting things into context, this is Main Street with the junction of Broompark Road leading off to the left where the curve in the road is. We can’t actually see Blakely’s Pub, or that would have been the only building surviving. On the far left, the tenements which now occupy Shanghai Wok Chinese takeaway.
Prominently in the background is former Kirkland Place, a 2 storey tenement at the corner of Cemetery Road which once was home to the post office, bank and several shops. The former toll house on the right demolished as is the multi storey tenement on the right, Gardiner Place, which burned down. Where that stands is now the entrance to the small car park beside Ladbrokes.
A changed scene indeed. All these people pictured a hundred years on, having lived their lives and they themselves, now gone.
My Grandma (Sarah McIntyre) used to live in the top floor of the furthest building on the right until she moved to Welsh Drive in the early !950’s.
The cooking and heating was provided by a Range. The only lighting was provided by two gas lights above the Range. Water came from a tap half way up the stairs. Toilet facilities were provided outside in the back yard.